BUILDING FOUNTAINS AND PONDS - Fountain
and Garden Pools 5
WATER SUPPPLIES FOR POOLS
A pool is not complete until it is filled
with water, but
successful garden pools can be maintained
without a supply of
flowing water. In fact an excellent way
of reducing the cost of pool
construction is to eliminate the plumbing.
Even a rather large pool
can be filled with a garden hose in a
fairly short time; and when
emptying is needed, it can be emptied
almost as rapidly by using
the hose as a siphon. The water in a
stagnant pool will not be clear
and sparkling, but it can be kept sweet
by balancing the plant and
animal life, as indoor aquaria are balanced
and maintained.
A more convenient method in pool plumbing
is a built-in supply
pipe which is connected to the house
water supply and eliminates
the necessity for filling with a hose.
It is controlled by a valve and
is used only to fill or to replenish
the pool; in other words, the
water does not run continuously. In many
communities, the supply
pipe must be installed so as to meet
the requirements of a building
or sanitary code. Whether or not a code
applies, a supply pipe
which is connected to a piping system
which also carries drinking
water should be installed so that there
is no possibility of the pool
water being drawn into the supply pipe.
The pipe should terminate
2 or 3 in. above the highest possible
water level in the pool. An under-surface
supply is permissible
only when the water is from a spring
or other source not used in
drinking.
Even when a supply of the kind just described
is installed, it is
not absolutely necessary to add a drain
pipe. However, a drain costs
only a little more, and it is of almost
as much convenience as a piped
supply. If there is a small brook, ditch,
or other open drainage
near by, the drain can empty into it.
Most home sites lack such
outlets, hence a dry well is necessary.
A satisfactory method of making a dry
well is to dig a hole about
3 ft. deep in the ground and to fill
this hole to within 6 in. of the
top with moderately coarse stone. Heavy
paper or burlap sacking is
placed on top of the stone, then the
rest of the excavation is filled
with top soil. Dry wells can also be
made by walling-up a hole with
stone or concrete block so as to leave
the interior of the excavation
hollow, but this method of construction
is not justified for a pool
drain. In most soils, a dry well which
is used only occasionally to
drain a pool will be adequate if its
volume is about one-half that of
the pool.
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